"Gao Wei, this is looking for a dead end!"

In the study next to the Tiger's Den Hall in the palace of Zhenhai Wang Ze, Wang Ze held a letter with a complicated expression, the letter was not about Goguryeo, but about the situation in the Central Plains and Northern Qi.

Now the war between Xia and Goguryeo has stopped for more than two years, and in these two years, Xia has continued to migrate a large number of people to the land of Beji, with these fierce people of Xia Kingdom, Wang Ze no longer has to worry about this land being robbed again in the future!

I thought that I had more time and could slowly attack Goguryeo, but I didn't want the situation in the Central Plains to become different from history because of my own participation, although the Northern Zhou led by Yuwen Yong was not stronger than in history, but the Northern Qi was even weaker.

Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yu Wenyong, was really overjoyed after learning that Gao Wei had killed Hu Lawyers Association and Gao Changgong, the two pillars of the Northern Qi Dynasty, how many times he wanted to do but couldn't do it, but Gao Wei completed it happily.

If it is possible, Yuwen Yong really wants to give Gao Wei a pennant to perform, but Gao Wei can't praise it, Yuwen Yong can still praise Wei Xiaokuan, who has made a lot of efforts in it, after all, Wei Xiaokuan's contribution in this is not small.

At this point, Yu Wenyong officially began to prepare his own plan to destroy the Northern Qi, but he still needed time to raise military rations and mobilize soldiers, and in any case, the originally powerful Northern Qi was entering the end of the world.

After killing Yuwen Hu and his descendants, Yu Wenyong personally took power in these years, with the continuous implementation of the strategy of Emperor Wu of Zhou Yuwen Yong's strategy of 'seeking troops among the monks and taking land under the temple tower', he successively ordered the abolition of Buddhism and Taoism in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, not only destroying Buddha statues, burning Buddhist scriptures, demolishing temples, but also ordering Futu monks and Taoist priests to return to the laity.

For a time, millions of monks, Taoist priests and people attached to monasteries and Taoist temples in the Northern Zhou Dynasty became the national household to undertake the enslavement, and the number of households in the Northern Zhou Dynasty increased by more than one million in one go, and most of them were young and middle-aged laborers.

You must know that at that time, there were only more than 9 million people in the entire Northern Zhou Dynasty, and after excluding the old, weak, women and children, it was at most three or four million laborers.

After the destruction of the Buddha, the Northern Zhou Dynasty not only obtained a large number of precious strategic materials such as copper and iron used to cast Buddha statues, but also increased nearly 30% of the young and strong labor force in one go, and received the effect of 'civil service is slightly scarce, the rent is increased year by year, and the military division is flourishing'.

Although Yuwenyong's reform touched the interests of many people, especially some big nobles and Buddhism and Taoism were very resentful of him, but Yuwenyong was young and strong at this time, and no one dared to act rashly, but with the political stability of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the national strength increased rapidly.

When Emperor Wu of Zhou was determined to eliminate the Northern Qi Dynasty, which had frequent internal political struggles, he had been promoted to the general of the Zhu State and the assassin of Xunzhou (southwest of Jishan, Shanxi) Shi Wei Xiaokuan, and played the three strategies of Chen to destroy Qi, advocating taking advantage of the Northern Qi turmoil to unite with Southern Chen, divide the army, and pacify it in one fell swoop.

In July of last year (the 17th year of the Xia calendar), Emperor Wu of Zhou Yuwen Yong dispatched an army of 180,000 to attack Qi, with Luoyang City in the Northern Qi Dynasty (now Luoyangdong, Henan) as the main offensive target, along both sides of the Yellow River, several roads by land and water.

Yu Wenyong personally led an army of 60,000 to attack Heyin (now Mengjindong of the Yellow River) and Luoyang, and ordered the generals Yang Jian (Yang Zhongzi) and Xue Zhen to lead the boat division (water army) 30,000, from Weishui into the Yellow River and down the river, and the Northern Zhou Qi Wang Yuwenxian led 20,000 troops to Liyang (now Jun County, Henan), and the 110,000 army was the main attack force of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

At the same time, Yuwen Yong ordered Li Mu to lead 30,000 troops to guard Heyang (now Mengxian County, Henan), Hou Mo Chen Rui to lead 20,000 troops to guard Taihang Road (in the north of Heyang), and Yu Ji to lead 20,000 troops out of Chen and Ru (now Rushuijian area of Huaiyang, Henan) to contain and block the reinforcements of Northern Qi.

In August, the armies of the Northern Zhou Dynasty invaded the Qi Territory.

The army led by Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yong, captured the Great City of Heyin (Outer City) and then attacked Zicheng (Inner City), but it was unable to overcome it because of the strong counterattack of the defenders.

After the Qi Wang Yuwen military army conquered Wuji (now Mengjin, Henan), he then besieged Luokou (the mouth of the Yellow River where Luoshui flows, northeast of present-day Gongxian County, Henan), captured the east and west cities of Luokou, and burned the pontoon bridge to cut off the traffic between the Qi troops on both sides of the strait, giving the Northern Zhou army a boost.

The three cities of Heyang commanded by Yu Wenyong (at that time, one city was built in the south and north of the river bridge and one city on the middle continent of the Yellow River, called the three cities of Heyang, which were important places to defend on the periphery of Luoyang, and the river bridge was in the southwest of Mengxian County, Henan, and the Yellow River in the northeast of Mengjin), after successfully conquering the southern city of Heyang, it was defeated and failed to conquer the middle city of Heyang.

Seeing this, Yuwen Yong prepared to bypass Heyang Zhongcheng, and then bypassed Heyang to attack Luoyang City directly, but this time because the general who guarded Luoyang City was Dugu Yongye, although Dugu Yongye suffered a great defeat when attacking Wang Yong, but this Heluo area was his home field after all, so Yuwen Yong also failed to conquer Luoyang.

Fortunately, at the same time, Zhou Junyu Wenxian, Li Mu, and Yu Yi's departments made smooth progress, and successively conquered more than 30 cities in the Northern Qi Dynasty, which brought some comfort to Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yong, who had failed one after another. Qianqian

At the end of September, the Northern Qi Dynasty personally led a large army from Jinyang (now Taiyuan, Shanxi) to support Luoyang, and the Northern Zhou still failed to capture Heyang and Luoyang, the most important cities.

The failure of the Northern Zhou Expedition had been foreseen by many people before, because Yu Wenyong's choice of offensive targets was not very appropriate.

Before he sent troops, Yuwen Baohong and others of the Northern Zhou Dynasty believed that because of the importance of Luoyang and its surrounding areas, the Northern Qi Dynasty had arranged a heavy defense here, and it was very difficult to capture both elite soldiers and strong cities, and it was almost impossible to defend the states and counties of Northern Qi on three sides, and it was inconvenient to defend even if it was captured.

Therefore, they all thought that it was best to march from Pingyang (now Linfen, Shanxi) and Jinyang, so that the chances of success would be greater, but Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yong, who was full of confidence at that time, could listen to these things, and failed to adopt their suggestions, and it was really in vain.

Because this time the attack of the Northern Zhou army was like the previous siege of the Northern Qi in vain, so Wang Ze still didn't pay too much attention, he still thought that things would be like in history, and it would take a few more years for the Northern Qi to be destroyed by the Northern Zhou.

However, unexpectedly, the Northern Qi Dynasty has suffered a great loss in strength because of the joint siege of various countries twice in recent years, and because of the rise of Wang Yong and Wang Ze father and son, the national strength of the Northern Qi Dynasty has become weaker than in history, so history is no longer the history of the past.

Although Emperor Wu of Zhou's Yuwen Yong marched into the army this time without results, he already knew the reality of the Northern Qi Dynasty, 'seeing the teachers of Qi, and dying with child's play', and seeing that his 'government was chaotic, the government was small, the people were stunned, and the day was not planned. It strengthened his determination to destroy Qi, and then he had the heart to destroy Qi for the second time.

After only more than a year, in the eighteenth year of the Xia calendar (574 AD), Emperor Wu of Zhou was ready to send troops again, and decided to no longer take the Henan region, which was not important to the Northern Qi Dynasty, as the first direction of attack, but instead sent troops from the Fenhe River valley to Pingyang City and destroy the military town of Northern Qi.

Pingyang City is the state of Jinzhou (now Linfen, Shanxi), is the place where Gao Huan rises, and is known as an important town in the Northern Qi Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of Zhou's strategic intention was: to attack Jinzhou and choke the enemy's throat, the Northern Qi court would inevitably send heavy troops to rescue, at this time, he concentrated his main forces to destroy the main force of Northern Qi in one fell swoop, and then immediately took advantage of the victory to advance eastward, and the troops pointed directly at the capital of Qi.

Although Yu Wenyong's idea was very good, there was a little accident inside the Northern Zhou this time!

Since Pingyang City is also an important city of the Eastern Wei-Northern Qi Dynasty to resist the Western Wei-Northern Zhou Dynasty for decades, it is not inferior to the important town of Luoyang, and most of the troops here are Xianbei Zhenjun with extremely rich experience in battle formations, and their combat effectiveness is very strong.

The generals of the Northern Zhou Dynasty were not only afraid of the strength of the Xianbei army, but also the successive setbacks of the Northern Zhou Dynasty's attack on the Luoyang region last year also made many Northern Zhou generals not believe that Yuwen Yong could really eliminate the Northern Qi, after all, the two countries have been fighting each other for 50 years, so this time even if Yu Wenyong said it well, many generals of the Northern Zhou Dynasty were still reluctant to lead the army.

At this time, Yu Wenyong was dumbfounded, and in desperation, he had to first solicit the support of Yu Jin, Li Bi and other veterans, and then threatened with military law, and then personally led more than 140,000 cavalry, which made other Northern Zhou generals reluctantly agree to lead the army to follow.

At this time, Yang Jian's father Yang Zhong had died of illness last year, so Yang Jian had inherited his father's position and became a new generation of Suiguo Gong, and this time he also marched into the army as a senior commander.

On the fourth day of October, Emperor Wu of Zhou Yuwen Yong took Yue Wang Yu Wensheng, Qiguo Gong Yu Wenliang, and Suiguo Gong Yang Jian as the right three armies, and Qian Wang Yu Wenjian, the general Dou Gong, and Guanghua Gongyu Wenchong as the left three armies, with Qi Wang Yu Wenxian and Chen Wangyu Wenchun as the front army, and personally commanded the whole army and marched east to attack Qi.

On October 18, the Zhou army marched to Fenqu in Jinzhou (now Linfennan, Shanxi), and Yuwen Yong assigned all the generals to block the reinforcements from all over the Northern Qi Dynasty, and ordered Xin Shao, the Duke of Liangcheng, to lead 5,000 cavalry to guard Pujin Pass (now Yongjixi, Shanxi) to ensure the safety of the rear.

After making these preparations, he ordered Wang Yi of the Inner History to urge the troops to attack Pingyang (Jinzhou Prefecture, present-day Linfen, Shanxi).

Pingyang City has been the first line of the Northern Qi against the Northern Zhou for many years, and has been besieged by the Northern Zhou army many times without being captured, but in previous years, the Northern Zhou Dynasty was the main attack on Luoyang, and Hedong was only an auxiliary attack here, but this time Pingyang County became the main target of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Faced with the arrogance of more than 100,000 troops in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Northern Qi defenders in Pingyang City had to urgently send a letter of help to Gao Wei, who had returned to Jinyang to live, hoping that Gao Wei could send reinforcements in time.

When the Pingyang emergency document arrived, Gao Wei, who did not know that he was destined to become the queen of the Northern Qi Dynasty, was hunting with his favorite concubine Feng Shufei in Jinyang Tianchi (now on Guanshui Mountain in the southwest of Ningwu, Shanxi).

The messenger who sent the urgent document asked Gao Wei for help, but even seeing Gao Wei was an extravagant hope, and he was blocked by Gao Wei's forbidden army and couldn't see him for a long time!